Sunday, July 16, 2017

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of July 9 - 16. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.1) The Uninhabitable EarthDavid Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think.Read the full article.

One of the more surprising aspects of Labour’s strong performance in the UK’s general election is that it came at a time when social democratic parties have experienced falling support in other countries across Europe. Davide Vittori asks whether the exceptionally poor results of parties such as the French Socialist Party in recent elections herald the end of social democracy as we know it in Europe.Read the full article.

Social media lynchings are as hyperbolic as they sound, but Emmanuel Macron got all the metaphorical violence he deserved when he suggested that poor African women have too many babies. The newly elected French President used a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg to say that wanton reproduction often made foreign aid pointless.Read the full article.

A coalition of Manitoba families says the commissioners on the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls have become ineffective and must resign.Read the full article.

11) Betsy DeVos Plans to Consult Men’s Rights Trolls About Campus Sexual AssaultChristina Cauterucci, Slate
When Trump nominated Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education, anti-rape advocates worried about the damage she might do. The Obama administration had pushed universities to better address sexual assault on their campuses, prescribing stricter guidelines for adjudicating accusations and publishing lists of schools under investigation. DeVos refused to say whether or not she’d uphold that guidance, but the prospects looked grim. She and her family foundation had both donated money to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group working to undo the progress Obama’s Department of Education had made on campus sexual assault.Read the full article.

“Careful your Muslim in-laws don’t behead you in your sleep for being homo,” a CSIS manager allegedly wrote in a 2015 email to an intelligence officer, one of several shocking incidents outlined in a statement of claim obtained by the Star.Read the full article.15) CMHC tells Ontario housing co-ops to abandon low-income membersCo-operative Housing Federation of Canada
Multi-million dollar renovation plans at three Ontario housing co-ops are in limbo after receiving government demands to cancel rental assistance to low-income families.Read the full article.

Released on Canada Day, Ryan Barry's (AKA Red Opera) Lifestyles of the Bourgeoisie was meant to make a political statement. The rapper, who has been performing on and off in Halifax since 1998 including releasing group albums under the name Tranz Ill, dipped his toes back into the music world with this collection. When not writing about the uneven political climate, Barry remains politically involved, running in the 2015 federal election in the South Shore St. Margaret's riding for the Communist Party of Canada. Listen to his latest offering and let Red Opera put a bug in your ear.Read the full article.

Two police officers have been charged in the 2016 death of Debra Chrisjohn, of Oneida Nation of the Thames, according to Ontario's police watchdog.Read the full article.

20) Jacobin magazine attacks Venezuela, Cuba and TeleSURJordan Woll, Liberation
Right wing opposition sympathizers in Venezuela are on social media, as always decrying so-called government “repression” while obscuring the real motivations behind the effort to bring about regime change in Venezuela. Such online propaganda campaigns are nothing new. What is new is that in recent weeks, they have been citing the “socialist” U.S.-based magazine Jacobin. How could this be?Read the full article.21) Why Can't the US Left Get Venezuela Right?Shamus Cooke, Venezuela Analysis
As Venezuela's fascist-minded oligarchy conspires with U.S. imperialism to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro, few in the U.S. seem to care.

Instead of denouncing rightwing violence that aims at regime change, many on the U.S. left have stayed silent, or opted to give an evenhanded analysis that supports neither the Maduro government nor the oligarchy trying to violently overthrow it. Rather, the left prioritizes its energy on lecturing on Maduro’s “authoritarianism” and the failures of “Chavismo.”

This approach allows leftists a cool emotional detachment to the fate of the poor in Venezuela, and clean hands that would otherwise be soiled by engaging with the messy, real life class struggle that is the Venezuelan revolution. Read the full article.

22) Nordic Parliamentarians Slam Right-Wing Venezuela ViolenceTelesur
Dozens of parliamentarians from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland have launched a declaration calling on the international community to reject ongoing right-wing violence in Venezuela, which has since claimed at least 94 lives.Read the full article.
There are also two articles from prior to the period that we missed that are being included.

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The Left Chapter

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